REGULAR MEETING, TOWN OF MOUNT HOPE, October 16, 2017

The town board meeting of the Town Board of the Town of Mount Hope was held at Town Hall at 1706 Route 211 West, Otisville, NY on October 16, 2017 at 7:30pm with the following present:  Supervisor Chad Volpe, Councilman Matt Howell, Councilman Brian Carey, Councilwoman Janet Sutherland, Councilman Dominick Cambareri & Town Clerk Kathleen Myers. OFFICIALS PRESENT: Chief Rickard, Supt. Hassenmayer & Att’y D. Bavoso.

Following the Pledge of Allegiance, Supervisor Volpe called the Public Hearing for the 2018 Preliminary Budget to order to order.  He asked for cell phones to be silenced.

7:30PM PUBLIC HEARING 2018 PRELIMINARY BUDGET: Supervisor Volpe noted the legal notice is on the table & there are copies of the budget available also. Supervisor explained there were 3 work sessions to go over the budget. He asked if board members had any questions. No questions from board members. He asked for questions from the audience. There were no comments from the audience. He passed out a budget summary paper which he explained the following: 2014 = 1% decrease, 2015 = 1% decrease, 2016 = ¾% decrease, 2017 = ½% decrease, 2018 = $6.3119/thousand. We are in the black. Taxes will be lowered. He referred to highway as follows: 2014 = 1% decrease, 2015 = no increase, 2016 = no increase, 2017 = no increase, 2018 = no increase. Highway tax $1.16/thousand. Great job to everyone for the budget.

Councilman Howell noted that on page 17 of the budget a contingency line for $1,000 has been added. This is to fund a reserve account for HV being we had a state mandated update and we had to come up with about $150,000. We did get some grant money but we had to take a loan against ourselves from other accounts. This will help for the future. Supervisor spoke re: round 4 of NYS wastewater grant; we applied with KC Engineering as soon as we found out we were mandated to do the upgrades. We were denied. Round 4 wastewater grant we were awarded last week $56,001 from NYS governor’s office which fully pays for the balance due so we have $75,000 from Sen. Bonacic & $56,000 from the governor’s office. It was more than what it cost to do the upgrades. The end result for Hidden Valley will be a net zero.

MOTION TO CLOSE PUBLIC HEARING: MOTION offered by Councilman Howell 2^nd Councilman Carey to close the public hearing at 7:37pm. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.

MOTION TO APPROVE THE 2018 PRELIMINARY BUDGET: MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2^nd Councilman Carey to approve the 2018 Preliminary Budget as presented. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.

MOTION TO ACCEPT THE PRIOR MEETING MINUTES: MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2nd Councilwoman Sutherland that the minutes of the 09/25/2017 budget meeting & 10/02/2017 regular meeting minutes as submitted are approved.  All in favor: Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; (Councilman Howell abstained from approving the 10/02/2017 minutes as he was not present at that meeting); carried. CORRESPONDENCE:

1. Copy of last years’ resolution to pre-pay bills
2. Copy of sign in list for planning/zoning class at Wawayanda on 8-29-2017
3. 3 – copies of fence quotes for the park pavilion
4. Copy of proposed local law regulating signs
5. Police dept. budget modification
6. 2 – Waterproofing quotes for police building basement

BOARD REPORTS: Councilman Howell: next master plan meeting is 10/19/17 at 5pm at town hall. A draft of comprehensive plan will be ready for that meeting. Veterans’ parade will be on November 11, 2017 at 11:00am starting at Otisville fire house ending at Veterans park. Councilman Carey: he spoke with them and there were no complaints about tickets. He spoke re: lack of signage about where to park. Highway Supt. can have signs made. Mr. Carey spoke re: fence quotes. He reached out to 5 companies; received 3 estimates: American Fence $11,660, Ketcham Fence $12,550 & Kuperis Fence $14,000. He made sure they were apples to apples & linear footage was the same. This is to replace the rotting fence posts around the pavilion. American Fence was supposed to take out a 12’ wide double swing gate. Supervisor asked if American is showing prevailing wage. Carey: all 3 of them are prevailing wage. They’ve all dealt with municipalities. Supervisor would rather deal with Ketcham since they are local. Councilman Cambareri added it’s nice to deal with a local contractor; we’re talking less than $1,000 difference.

114 MOTION TO ACCEPT QUOTE FROM KETCHAM FENCE TO REPLACE CEDAR RAIL FENCE AT THE TOWN PARK: MOTION offered by Councilman Howell 2^nd Councilman Carey to accept the quote from Ketcham Fence for $12,550.00 to replace the cedar rail fence at the town park pavilion area. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.

BOARD COMMENTS CONT.: Councilman Carey asked about thank you letters going out to the companies as to the status of their bids. Supervisor stated he could bring something in and Angie has his letterhead and Kathleen has letterhead, too. Councilwoman Sutherland: planning board meets 10/18/17. There’s no change in the library cards. She spoke to Chief Rickard about the 2 loose german shepards on Finchville Turnpike. Dog control officer picked up 1 of them. Chief: both are at Roeder’s now. DCO thinks they were dumped. They have no tags or chips. Councilman Cambareri: he was going to report on funding for the sewer plant where it’s no cost to sewer district- Supervisor already spoke about it. Councilman Carey added that he attended the OC Legislator meeting. It was 4 hours. Nothing got accomplished. The tower was discussed at the end. Supervisor Volpe: gave packets to board members re: 2 separate grants for the pool building. 1^st one – Senator Bonacic $100,000.00 from April 2014, that is 100% fully funded. The other 1 from Aileen Gunther for $130,000.00 is in its final stage – not fully funded yet. He reminded everyone the prices we got from bidding out the roof the 1^st time. He spoke to a few contractors & municipalities they suggested breaking down the job. Buy the product, buy the materials. He asked Dean about getting the dumpsters. We’ll do the dumpsters ourselves. So, now we’ll bid out for just the labor. Labor = prevailing wage for a roofer so it is apples to apples. Materials to do the roof are the 1^st 2 pages = $9,380.94. The 2nd sheet they forgot to take off tax so it’s $7,006.50. Not sure if each piece of plywood is gonna have to be replaced. We can return whatever is not used. This is all off state contract for the roof. We will be 100% reimbursed for the $16,000. He was gonna work with Dominick on writing a bid for just the roof labor & see where we are with grant then move on to the columns. There’s no mark up. He recommends we buy this. We have room to store it.

MOTION TO ACCEPT QUOTE FROM ARZEE FOR SHINGLES & ACCESSORIES FOR THE POOL BUILDING: MOTION offered by Councilman Carey 2^nd Councilman Howell to approve ARZEE for the shingles and accessories for the roof for $9,380.94.  All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried. Supervisor Volpe: spoke next about the plywood. We may not need all of the plywood. We can return what’s not used.

MOTION TO ACCEPT QUOTE FROM ARZEE FOR PLYWOOD FOR THE POOL BUILDING: MOTION offered by Councilman Howell 2^nd Councilman Carey to approve ARZEE for the plywood for $7,006.50. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.

COMMITTEE REPORTS: HIGHWAY DEPT.: Supt. Hassenmayer: we will be returning some materials because they have 2 roofs that don’t exist anymore. They took measurements from a photo. The 2 restrooms are gone. Supervisor: phase 3 of that would be cheaper to pour the concrete for the whole part that you filled in and actually re-add those buildings so that the plumbing didn’t have to go through the new concrete. Hassenmayer reported he spoke to Marangi. They’ll move one of our empty dumpsters up there; when it’s full they’ll switch it out. Trash days is finished: 14 pallets of electronics, 3 dumpsters of metal, 14 dumpsters of garbage. Collected $435 for tv’s, air conditioners, refrigerators, freezers, car/truck tires. 36 home pickups for seniors. He spoke re: guard rail along Finchville. That should go up this week or next week. Total cost around $8,000 off state bid. He spoke about the trestle on Carboy Road – one lane road. A lot of locals are fine with pulling up and stopping to see if there’s oncoming traffic. We have more people not from the area. There was previous discussion about one lane signs, slow down signs. He suggested painting stop lines & put a stop sign. The board would have to do a resolution.

MOTION TO PUT A STOP SIGN AT THE TRESTLE ON CARBOY ROAD: MOTION offered by Councilman Howell 2^nd Councilman Carey to authorize the highway superintendent to paint stop lines and put up stop signs at the Carboy Road train trestle. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.

POLICE DEPARTMENT: Chief Rickard introduced Jeff Madden (new police officer) who spoke about himself. Chief noted the budget modification is from money received for the police services at Moon festival. He discussed the need for waterproofing the police/court basement.

We applied last year for a grant for waterproofing the basement but we did not get it. Received 2 quotes to get this done. A 3^rd company declined to bid.

Councilman Cambareri explained the reason to go with 4 pumps is they’re gonna use a ½ hp main pump & 1/3 hp back up pump. 115 There will be 2 pump stations each with a main pump and a back-up pump. He explained the installation process. This should take care of groundwater and he recommends doing this. Supervisor asked about using the dumpster from Marangi – would it be cheaper than from the company getting it for us for $1200.

After discussing it, they agreed to use the company dumpster. Councilwoman Sutherland asked about the square footage of the project. Councilman Howell: it’s 274 linear feet. Councilman Carey clarified that the community center side of the building does not get water. Chief Rickard: correct. It’s on the other side of the fire wall. Councilman Carey: ever since we paved the parking lot it got worse? Chief: it seems that way.

MOTION TO ACCEPT QUOTE FROM GLC WATERPROOFING: MOTION offered by Councilman Carey 2^nd Councilman Cambareri to accept quote from GLC Waterproofing in the amount of $20,848.00 to waterproof the basement at the police/court side of the building. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.

VILLAGE OF OTISVILLE: Trustee Loeven reported they adopted the Halloween curfew.

HUDSON VALLEY WILD GOOSE CHASERS: Jim Squillante spoke re: the goose issue at the town park. He would like to go to the park with a board member to see how far they would want to reach out. He was there the other day; there was about 200 geese. Councilman Cambareri asked how do we get the geese to not nest there in the spring. Mr. Squillante stated we would get rid of the ones that are there; most won’t come back but new ones will come – this will be ongoing. He does the hospital in Middletown but he has to go every day.  The resident ones will fight you and come back in the spring. You can do it every day for a year, a couple months or a couple times/week. You gotta see what works. If you were gonna do it now – you’d have to hit it at least 2x/day for at least 3 weeks. After that once/day. If there’s snow on the ground for a while, they’re gonna leave. We usually start in March and work through Dec. 1^st. Councilman Carey asked re: oiling the eggs. Squillante: Your plan of action is to get in there before they lay the eggs. Carey: how many dogs do you have? Mr. Squillante: we have 6 but only up here we have only 1. When they see the dog come running at them they take off. Councilwoman Sutherland asked what kind of dogs they are. Squillante: border collies. They’re gonna probably fly from that field to the pond then we’ll get them outta the pond. Then maybe find another spot & we’ll chase them again. After a while they’ll go somewhere else. Supervisor asked if the dog is safe to the residents. Squillante: the dog is friendly but they’re very focused on the geese. Each goose poops 2 pounds/day. Supervisor: how soon can you start? Squillante: can start tomorrow but….Supervisor: can you meet one day during the day? He said yes he could set it up. Squillante: I will look at it & get you a price. Right away I think you’ll need a couple weeks straight. Discussed price. $25 each time he comes.

MOTION TO HIRE HUDSON VALLEY WILD GOOSE CHASERS FOR THE TOWN PARK: MOTION offered by Councilwoman Sutherland 2^nd Councilman Carey to approve Hudson Valley Wild Goose Chasers not to exceed $1,500.00 as a pilot program for the goose issue.  All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried. AT THIS TIME, Supervisor Volpe asked Councilman Cambareri to prepare an ad for the roof and columns for the THR.

PROPOSED LOCAL LAW REGULATING TEMPORARY SIGNS: Supervisor Volpe wanted to know what the board wanted to do with this law. He thinks 30 days before and 1 week after is plenty of time. Councilman Carey asked what would happen if someone leaves the signs up for longer than allowed. What are repercussions? Supervisor stated that the code enforcement officer would give them a notice. Bavoso added that there’s a penalty provision in the law. Carey: has anyone ever not taken their signs down in that amount of time? Cambareri: a lot of times it’s groups that put out signs for advertisement. Chief asked if his signs (slow down for kids) could be exempt. Supervisor: we’re looking at political signs. You have to get your message out but 30 days before and 1 week after is good. Councilman Howell asked about exemptions for certain signs ie: community day. Discussion ensued over other types of signs. Supervisor asked the board their thoughts. Howell, Sutherland, Cambareri were good with 30 days. Councilman Carey asked how many people complained. He is against this sign law. If you can’t pick up your signs, shame on you. If you’re running for office do the right thing and take your signs down. He doesn’t know what this will do for us long term. He knows of only a handful of people that complained. Howell: thinks the time frame is good on the political signs. Bavoso: there are a few other items regarding temporary signs in general; special sales & events. They can be up for a period not to exceed 15 days. The larger aspect is prohibited locations. You can’t put them pin public right of ways. Howell asked if the attorney could recap the penalty aspect of the law. Bavoso: will review and get back to the board- he didn’t know this would be on the agenda tonight. Board should email David with any changes they would like to see in the law. This was tabled for now. 116 PRE-PAY BILLS: Supervisor Volpe spoke re: Town Clerk to close out the bills on the 27^th of Oct. since the next town board meeting is not until the 9^th of Nov. Bills will be ready for board members to come in on the 30^th to sign off on them.

MOTION TO PREPAY BILLS BEFORE NEXT MEETING: MOTION offered by Councilman Howell 2^nd Councilman Carey to prepay Abstract #21 vouchers presented to the Town Clerk’s office by October 27 for board execution on October 30. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.

MOTION TO APPROVE POLICE BUDGET MODIFICATION: MOTION offered by Councilman Cambareri 2^nd Councilwoman Sutherland to approve the following: Increase revenue A1520 by $406.17 AND increase Police revenue line A3120.4 by $406.17. (for police services to the moon festival) All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.

CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING: Supervisor Volpe asked the board to pick a date for the Christmas tree lighting. The board discussed/agreed on December 1 at 7:00pm.

MOTION TO APPROVE TREE LIGHTING: MOTION offered by Councilwoman Sutherland 2^nd Councilman Howell to hold the Christmas tree lighting at town hall on December 1, 2017 at 7:00pm; refreshments to follow. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.

MOTION TO AUDIT THE CLAIMS: MOTION offered Councilman Cambareri 2^nd by Councilman Howell to approve Abstract #20: GENERAL A:               #580-612                     $ 47,905.66 GENERAL B:               #79-85                         $ 10,720.11 HIGHWAY:                   #151-158                     $ 20,557.50 SEWER:                       #84-87                         $   2,802.21. All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: Diane Loeven: Next CAB meeting is Oct. 24. Seniors have a trip this Thursday 10/19 to Westchester dinner theatre. She noted the seniors are excited about the acoustical tiles that will be put in the senior center. Hometown helpers has a number of people attending the suicide prevention class. At one of the CPR classes there was a scheduling conflict with a group that was trying to have their meeting. They went in to the kitchen so as not to disturb the class. Supervisor asked about the curtains. There’s a website that Dominick said to check. He will email the information to Diane. Dominick would like (for next year) Bob Decker to have a key for the senior office to store/have access to the DVD player. Chief Rickard added that they bought a new DVD player. Ken Coppola: asked who was going to strip the roof at the pool. Supervisor: that would be part of the 1^st part. Part of the labor. They’ll strip it all down. Mary Maurizzio: thanked the Supervisor for an informative town newsletter. She referred to/spoke about Councilwoman Sutherland’s portion of the newsletter. Kathie Yedziniak: stated that anyone running for election can put a sign on her lawn. Ken Pinkela: asked if the board could as for the environmental assessment for the towers.  They can’t find it on their website. He was referring to only the microwave portion of the tower. There’s no RF environmental impact statement on the 3 homes that are close enough to the tower. (Specifically the Graham Mountain tower build) Mr. Pinkela spoke re: old school being available for Halloween. People can park in the parking lot. Councilman Howell asked about the 3 houses previously mentioned with regard to the microwave and proximity. Pinkela: look at the FCC stuff. The Canadians are leading the way. Alison Miller: REMINDER for Old School Community Center Tricky Tray on 10-21-17; will be at the new Otisville school on Mount Hope Road. Lots of wonderful prizes; doors open at 5:00pm, calling starts @ 6:30pm.

TOWN BOARD COMMENTS: There were no board comments.

117 CPR/AED CLASS: Supervisor Volpe stated the CPR/AED class is full. He will speak with Officer Decker for Wednesday class. Councilwoman Sutherland asked who is giving the Wednesday class. Supervisor Volpe: Sean Gerow from Middletown. K. Yedziniak asked the personal liability for the person doing the CPR. Supervisor: there is none. Supervisor: there is a good Samaritan law. But, anyone can sue anyone. Bavoso: it is likely that you would get sued over it and there would be liability for it. Further discussion ensued. Councilwoman Sutherland asked about the NARCAN – good Samaritan law. Councilman Cambareri: there are no side effects from it. You can’t hurt anybody from giving it to them.

MOTION FOR ADJOURNMENT: MOTION offered Councilman Cambareri 2nd Councilman Howell to adjourn the meeting at 8:45pm.  All in favor: Howell, Carey, Volpe, Sutherland, Cambareri; carried. The next meeting is scheduled for November 9, 2017 at 7:30pm in the town hall meeting room. Respectfully submitted, Kathleen A. Myers, RMC Town Clerk 118